The present invention relates to a technique for reading data from a WWW (World Wide Web) server or a package medium such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM and displaying the read data by using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
As software for accessing data of a WWW server or a package medium by using the HTML, there are Netscape Navigator of Netscape Communications Corporation (U.S.A.), Internet Explorer of Microsoft Corporation (U.S.A.), and the like.
Since the software as mentioned above gathers all information including image data through a network, when a line having slow communication speed such as a telephone line is used, there is a problem that a communication time is long.
When data of a large quantity such as animation is sent by using an electronic mail, since the quantity of the mail is large, there are problems such that a storage is burdened and it takes a lot of time to transfer the data.
Further, the software has a problem such that when data is read from the package medium, a hyper link (link expressed by using HTML) leading to another package medium cannot be performed.
As a multimedia information recording system interactively corresponding to an operation of the user, at present, there is a video-CD which is described in a magazine "Nikkei Electronics" (Nov. 8, 1993). According to the video-CD, video data such as a moving image and a still image and audio data such as music and effect sounds is recorded in a CD-ROM and reproduction control data as information for reproducing and controlling the video data and the audio data in correspondence to the operation of the user is also recorded. By recording the reproduction control data, the video-CD realizes a reproduction interactively with the user. A file system according to the ISO9660 standard is defined as a recording system of the CD-ROM and the video-CD is a personal computer corresponding to the file system. The video-CD can be easily reproduced by a personal computer having a reproducing means of the video data (according to the MPEG standard).
In addition, an information recording and reproducing system called a WWW (World Wide Web) of the internet is famous as a system for interactively reproducing the multimedia data via a network.
FIG. 27 shows a construction of an interactive video recording and reproducing system which has been already proposed by the applicant of the present invention.
In FIG. 27, an optical disk medium 101 has the following regions. That is, the optical disk medium 101 is constructed by: a disk identifying information recording region 102 in which an identifier for specifying the recording contents of the disk is recorded; an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) information recording region 103 in which a file in the HTML format that defines association between a document and multimedia data or association between documents is recorded; a multimedia data recording region 104; and an executable program recording region 105 in which an executable program for making a specific reproducing apparatus operative is recorded. For example, a CD-ROM or the like is used as the optical disk medium 101.
In addition to an optical disk reproducing means, an interactive video reproducing means 106 for reproducing the optical disk medium 101 has a communication means for communicating with an interactive video transmitting means 108 via a communication medium 107. Further, the interactive video reproducing means 106 communicates with an internet server 110 which can be connected via the interactive video transmitting means 108 and the internet 109.
The interactive video transmitting means 108 communicates with the interactive video reproducing means 106 via the communication medium 107 and sends proper HTML data in response to a URL(Univeral Resource Locator) requested by the interactive video reproducing means 106. Such an interactive video transmitting means 108 is generally called a WWW server or the like. If the communication medium 107 is a medium which can transmit the URL and HTML data, a combination of a telephone line and the PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol), a combination of Ethernet and the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), and other systems can be also used.
According to an interactive video recording and reproducing system described above, data recorded in the optical disk medium 101, which is obtained via communication means is reproduced.
FIG. 28 shows an example of a structure of a directory in the optical disk medium 101. The directory structure is recorded by using the ISO9660 standard (standard regarding a disk structure of a CD-ROM). FIG. 28 shows a tree structure of a logical hierarchy of the directory. When a name shown in a knot in the tree structure is a directory name, it is shown in brackets (&lt;and &gt;). If it is a file name, it is shown without brackets. For example, &lt;ROOT&gt; denotes a root directory including some sub-directories and DISKID indicates a file.
Files names in the optical disk medium 101 will be described by partitioning directories with slashes (/) hereinafter. With respect to &lt;ROOT&gt;, the directory name is omitted. For example, &lt;ROOT&gt;-&lt;WWW&gt;-&lt;HTML&gt;-INDEX.HTM is described as /WWW/HTML/INDEX.HTM.
The disk identifying information recording region 102, HTML information recording region 103, multimedia data recording region 104, and executable program recording region 105 shown in FIG. 27 correspond to regions 201, 202, 203, and 204 surrounded by dotted lines in FIG. 28, respectively.
In the disk identifying information recording region 201, a file having a name of DISKID is recorded. In this file, information specifying the disk from disks of different kinds, such as the maker of the disk, recording contents of the disk, and title of the disk is recorded.
In the HTML information recording region 202, a file in the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) format which is widely used in the WWW (World Wide Web) of the internet (in the diagram, files each having an extension of HTM in the &lt;HTML&gt; directory) is recorded. HTML intends to describe the association between a document and multimedia data or the association between documents. HTML defines here the association between the file (document) recorded in the HTML information recording region 202 and the multimedia data recorded in the multimedia data recording region 203, the association between an HTML file and multimedia data obtained via the communication medium 107, and the like.
In the multimedia data recording region 203, still image data (in the diagram, files each having an extension of GIF in the &lt;GIF&gt; directory), moving image data (in the diagram, files each having an extension of DAT in the &lt;MPEG&gt; directory), audio data (not shown), and the like are recorded. In the diagram, multimedia data is recorded in both of the &lt;ROOT&gt;-&lt;WWW&gt; directory and the &lt;ROOT&gt;-&lt;APPEND&gt; directory. A file recorded in the former one of &lt;WWW&gt; is referred to from a file in the HTML format (file having the extension of HTM) recorded in the HTML information recording region 202. On the contrary, the file recorded in the latter one of &lt;APPEND&gt; is not referred to.
An executable program for acquiring and reproducing data recorded in the optical disk medium 101 and data obtained through the communication medium 107 is recorded in the executable program recording region 204. In the diagram, a program file (/PCAP/WWWVIEW.EXE in the diagram) is recorded in a directory having a name of &lt;PCAP&gt;. In a file (in a diagram, it is shown as /AUTORUN.INF) which is directly recorded in the root directory, a program activating procedure (executable program name, name of a file to be reproduced first by a program, and the like) is recorded. In the diagram, it is assumed that /PCAP/WWWVIEW.EXE is defined as an executable program and /WWW/HTML/INDEX.HTM is defined as a file to be reproduced first among items to be recorded in the program activating procedure.
FIG. 29 shows association of multimedia data using the interactive video recording system. In the diagram, data in a region 301 surrounded by a dotted line is data recorded in the optical disk medium 101. Data in a region 302 is data recorded in the interactive video transmitting means 108. Data in a region 303 is data recorded in the internet server 110.
As a file to be reproduced first, WWW/HTML/INDEX.HTM is selected according to the program activating procedure shown in FIG. 28. As the reproducing contents of INDEX.HTM, it is defined to refer to a still image /WWW/GIF/MENU001.GIF recorded in the optical disk medium 101 in addition to a text display and the like. /WWW/HTML/PAGE.HTM is also defined in INDEX.HTM as an association to other documents. Reference to the multimedia data and a transition to the HTML file are performed by a description called a tag of HTML.
When the association from INDEX.HTM to PAGE.HTM is selected in order to move to the reproduction file, in a manner similar to the reproduction of INDEX.HTM, reproduction of a text or multimedia data and transition to another document are performed according to the definition of PAGE.HTM. In the diagram, a still image file of /WWW/GIF/MENU0002.GIF and a moving image file of /WWW/MPEG/VIDEO001.DAT are referred to as multimedia data. A file having a name of AD001.HTM recorded in the interactive video transmitting means 108 is defined as a document to be jumped to.
In the contents of AD001.HTM recorded in the interactive video transmitting means 108, as multimedia data to be moved to, the still image file /APPEND/GIF/AD001.GIF recorded in the optical disk medium 101 is defined. As a document to be moved to, a file TOPIC001.HTM in the HTML format recorded in the same interactive video transmitting means 108 is defined. In the contents of TOPIC001.HTM, as multimedia data to be referred to, a moving image file /APPEND/MPEG/AD001.DAT recorded in the optical disk media and a still image file TOPIC001.GIF recorded in the interactive video transmitting means 108 are defined. As a document to be moved to, a file NEWS.HTM in the HTML format recorded in the internet server 110 is defined.
In the contents of NEWS.HTM, it is defined to refer to a still image file NEWS.GIF recorded in the same internet server 110.
Generally, a file in the HTML format has text data, so that a file size is small. Even in the case of obtaining the file via the communication medium 107, it can be obtained in a short communication time. On the contrary, since the multimedia data such as still image and moving image has a large file size, it is difficult to obtain it in a short communication time. In the system, even when the file in the HTML format (AD001.HTM, TOPIC001.HTM) is obtained via the communication medium 107, since the file (AD001.GIF, AD001.DAT) which can be reproduced from the optical disk medium 101 as multimedia data to be referred to from the file is associated, the communication time can be largely reduced.
In the system configuration of the interactive video recording and reproducing system, data obtained from a network is stored in a temporary storing memory in interactive video reproducing means so as to shorten a time accessing the same information. However, the capacity of the temporary storing memory is limited, so that when the memory becomes full, a process for deleting stored data is performed.
It is not necessary to keep connecting the network while data of the optical disk medium is referred to.
Although a command to be transmitted to a network is instantaneously transmitted under the present situation, the command is temporarily stored and when a plurality of commands are gathered, they are transmitted in a lump, thereby enabling the number of probabilities of a communication session to be reduced.
Information displaying method and apparatus for linking and displaying information obtained from both of a CD-ROM and a communication medium are used for sales by mail order or the like, as introduced in a magazine "Nikkei Multimedia" (No. 2, August, 1995). Information of the CD-ROM and information obtained through the communication medium is described in different methods and a communication is executed in cooperation with a communication of a personal computer.
As a language for forming a home page corresponding to a WWW (World Wide Web) server of the internet, for example, there is HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is recognized as a standard language with the growing popularity of the WWW. The WWW browser is recognized as software indispensable for accessing to the internet.
In the conventional technique as mentioned above, since data of the CD-ROM and data obtained through the communication medium is formed by peculiar description systems in respective information storing media, there is no compatibility between the systems. Information obtained by communication cannot be used with other information and formation of contents is troublesome. It takes time to receive information due to a problem of an internet connecting environment, so that operability is not good, and the user has to worry about communication costs.
When information on the CD-ROM is displayed by using the WWW browser in a manner similar to a display of information from the communication medium, different from the internet access which is obviously recognized as a communication, it is desirable to notify the user of a fact that the information medium of the present or next display information is the CD-ROM or the communication medium. In addition, there is a desirable function such that transition between information not mutually linked can be easily realized like a case of returning to information on the CD-ROM after Net surfing with the WWW communication.